Advertising has developed significantly, to adapt to current societal norms and standard morals within the time of publishment. These advertisements help to change and develop individuals own beliefs. Which can have a negative impact on society by either causing offence to groups of people or painting ideals in consumers' minds which can affect societies' psychological wellbeing. This means that advertising companies have a responsibility of giving out valid and accurate information to prevent harm to consumers.
Racism, sexism and homophobia have occurred within advertising before the 1950’s. With racism and sexism being primarily the focus within adverts, to appeal to certain target audiences. In 1875, Fairy Soap released an advertisement to develop the sales of their product. At the time of publishment there were no regulations with what they could or could not make. When the advertisement was published, racism towards black people would have been considered the “norm” and society would have not seen it as racism as we know it today. But, looking at the advert in 2021, it is explicitly racist. The advert itself shows a young white girl asking a young black girl “WHY DOESN’T YOUR MAMMA WASH YOU WITH FAIRY SOAP?” This then implies that the young black girl is dirty. Also, with the young white girl being in a dress and shoes, and the young black girl dressed in rags and no shoes implies that the white girl is superior to the black girl. Which today, would not be allowed for multiple reasons, with one being society’s morals and the other being the rules and regulations set for advertising companies which adverts must follow to protect the public from harm. In addition, the advert could be seen as sexist in 2021, but at the time of publishment, it was considered the norm with mother’s being the “housewife” and men being the workers within the household. It appears to be quite domestic with young girls being advertised instead of young boys. The advert itself was in colour with half of the advert being an illustration that was realistic and the other half being text. This is presumably used within a newspaper. The colours within the advert are a harmonious colour scheme. Later in 2011, racism and sexism has decreased significantly due to societal norms and beliefs. The advertisement in 2011 shows three women in towels after having showered using Dove soap. They have tried to show within the advert that their consumers' skin before will be dry and afterwards it will be smooth. But whilst doing so, it has some racism embedded into it without the company even knowing that it is racist. The women's complexions range from darker to lighter skin going from left to right. This implies to a viewer that the black woman is dry and dirty because she has not used the Dove soap, in comparison to the white woman that has used the soap and is clean and soft. The text within the advert states “Visibly more beautiful skin from the most unexpected of places – your shower.” this could help to form an idea into a consumer's mind that the black woman is not beautiful, and the white woman is. During the time of publishment, there was clear guidance and regulations about advertising. So therefore, it is quite unusual for this to happen, Dove had some backlash from viewers about their advertisement. This was due to the overall racist feel to the advert. Dove had upset the black and ethnic minority groups with this advert causing the advert to be cancelled. Overall, advertising has changed throughout the years with the regulations and guidance about advertising not allowing certain discriminatory advertising to take place. However, this does not mean that some adverts can be missed. Which is evident with the 2011 advert. Despite this, the advertising regulations have been able to keep track of discriminatory advertising and adverts that are discriminatory are not released to the public anymore due to the offence caused to certain groups of people.
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